What is natural about floppy ears? What is natural about smooshed faces, long backs, short legs, Paul Bunion dogs, dogs with hip dysplasia, patella luxation, collapsing tracheas, VonWillebrands disease, dilated cardiomyopathy, degenerative myelopathy, degenerative retinopathy, hypothyroidism, epilepsy, cervical vertebral instability....need I go on? Or thin, whip like tails which fracture easily? What is natural about selective breeding done by humans? What is natural about all the diseases and spinal malformaties that humans have created by messing with genetics? That's not how natural dogs look. "Natural" dogs (wild) have upright ears. Natural dogs don't suffer all these hideous medical problems.
I don't mean to sound rude, but I see so much of this argument which is illogical to me...incongruous...and I want to emphasise my point I guess.
There are medical and practical reasons besides looks for cropping and docking some breeds. If you read up on the breeds and why this was done and why it is often still done, you'll see what those reasons are. To some, these reasons are not important and that's fine. To others, they are viable reasons.
The fact of the matter is that the tail is docked at 3 or 4 days of age when the central nervous system is not yet fully developed and there is no pain. I happen to love my Doberman's tail and it's wag. It's extraordinarily expressive and cute.
The ears can be somewhat painful for the first day or two, but quickly heal...within a week to 10 days, they are totally clean and healed. There are fewer nerve endings in cartilege than other soft tissue. This is a connective tissue and is very durable.
Cropping ears is really not that big of a medical deal. If you have never experienced first hand having a pup done correctly by a reputable vet, via your breeder, or if you haven't seen a litter of puppies playing roughly right after it's done, no crying, no caution, then you can't really make a very informed, first hand opinion. Taking a little information from odd sources, media and government propaganda without having any first hand knowlege and coming to a conclusion is really not very scientific or logical...not until you have ALL the information that is possible. I realize that some vets are anti cropping/docking, but more are not.
These bans and bans on certain breeds (Pitbulls) are a perfect example of ignorance and people gathering a tiny bit of information and running like a horse with the bit in it's teeth. Like they say, "A little bit of information in the wrong hands is dangerous." Is that how that saying goes?